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Ok, I had to post this because it has been an issue for me for the better part of a year now and I finally figured out how to fix it. The solution is so simple that I wanted to kick myself for not seeing it sooner.
The Problem: You need to import a contact list on another computer from that systems Outlook data file to your current Outlook data file. After you import the contact list, it doesn't appear in the Contacts tab in Outlook 2010.
The Solution: The imported contact list in a .pst file is not imported as an Address Book, so therefore Outlook 2010 will not list it with other Address Books making the imported list invisible. To see it, from the Contacts tab, scroll down to the bottom of the left hand pane and click on the little file folder to view the Folder List. The imported .pst file will now be shown in the Folder List, right click on the imported .pst file and go to properties. In the Outlook Address Book tab check the box "Show this folder as an email Address Book".
Problem solved.
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Ok, so I am a teacher at a small private school in Kansas City. For the last couple years I have been telling students about the power of PC gaming over consoles. I always concede that if you want to get into some good gaming action on the cheap then a console system is the best way to go, but if you want your gaming platform to be a bit better with the ability to upgrade over time making a system that is far superior to any console system then PC is the way to go.
Well one of my students is finally crossing over to the dark side and has asked me to help him pick the parts he needs for a new entry level gaming rig. Currently he has about $550 to spend including the shipping costs. So my question to you all is, what parts do you think would work best for gaming, including modern games like BC2 and upcoming BC3?
I have listed the parts I have chosen for him below, but recommendations are always helpful. Feel free to post the entire setup including the total cost with shipping. Thanks.
CPU - AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0ghz
RAM - G. Skill 4gb (2 x 2gb) Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT
HDD - HITACHI HDS721050CLA362 500gb 16mb Cache
MoBo - BIOSTAR A780L3L
Optical - LG Sata DVD Burner Model GH22NS50B - OEM
Video - PNY VCGGT4401XPB GeForce GT 440 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Case - Rosewill TU-155 II 500 Black
Flash - SYBA CL-CRD20036 USB 2.0 3.5"
OS - Win 7 HP 64bit
Total with shipping - $543.27
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When it comes to smart phones, for the last 3 years the iPhone from Apple has been the phone to beat. With it's introduction in 2007, Apple set a new standard that for many people has yet to be met by any other phone manufacturer or operating system. But then along came Google with their mobile Android operating system and the smart phone landscape was changed yet again.
At it's introduction, Android was hailed as the next big thing in mobile OS's, but at launch it faced some notable problems, unlike Apple's iPhone which when launched, was loved by just about everybody. However Android has since grown and matured enough that it really is considered to be an excellent OS.
As has always been since it's launch, the Apple iPhone has only been made available through AT&T in the US. As Android grew, other mobile phone carriers started filling their ranks with hot new Android devices including the Motorola Droid. While Android devices kept coming on T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon, it's presence was hardly seen at all on AT&T. Many said this was because AT&T didn't want to create to much competition to the iPhone and since the iPhone has been AT&T's biggest seller for the last three years, nobody can really blame them. But then the Android phones finally started trickling in. The first was the Motorola Backflip, a highly limited and crippled Android device that didn't fair so well in the pro reviews nor with most of the unfortunate people who purchased it. Then not long ago AT&T brought us the HTC Aria, a larger Android phone running Android 2.1. While the phone wasn't a shocker by any means, it finally brought AT&T into the Android loop with a good phone that was capable of doing most things people were looking for in an iPhone alternative. But while the Aria gave the customers a new option, it just wasn't enough. The screen to start is smaller then the iPhone, and when it comes to today's smart phones, the screen is one of the biggest things people are looking for. But for those who wanted a smaller phone, the Aria was perfect.
Two weeks ago AT&T finally released a top of the line Android smart phone called the Captivate, a phone that is part of the Samsung Galaxy S series. Samsung struck a new cord with it's Galaxy S series because of the fact that they were able to release 4 very similar phones on all four of the major phone provider networks in the US and the Captivate was the AT&T model. With it's ultra fast Hummingbird CPU, 4" AMOLED display, 16gb of storage space and more, the Captivate was the first high end phone release that seemed to be able to go toe to toe with the iPhone.
Having already purchased two iPhones for my family talk plan with AT&T, I have become very familiar with the iPhone and it's capabilities. Like I said before, Apple set the smart phone standard with the original iPhone and only improved upon it with every new iPhone release. So when it finally came time for me to make my bi-annual upgrade, the iPhone was the top contender for my future cell phone needs. Fortunately for me though, the Captivate had been extensively reviewed and when it came time for me to make my purchase, I choose the Captivate instead. Now if you ask me if the Captivate is a better phone then the iPhone, I will tell you it is, but I will also add that it is my personal opinion and nothing more. The iPhone is still an awesome smartphone, as is the Captivate. What I have noticed though is that what phone you will like better really all depends on what phone you have been using for the past couple of years.
While I have gotten to know the iPhone, my own phone before the Captivate was the Samsung Jack running Windows Mobile 6.5. It was a good phone to me. Before that I was using the Samsung Blackjack II running Windows Mobile 6.1 and it too was also a good phone. But neither of those phones could match the performance of an iPhone or a high end Android phone. So when I made the switch to my Captivate I was in love with it from the start. But let's say my son was to upgrade from his current iPhone 3g to the Captivate. I have a feeling that he wouldn't like it nearly as much. Having been using an iPhone for the last two years he has grown accustomed to how it works, what it does and what it is capable of doing. For somebody like him who has been using an iPhone for a decent period of time, I think upgrading to a newer model of iPhone is really the best option. iPhone have been around for three years now, and iPhone users have really gotten to know their phone, so to switch all of a sudden to a high end Android device, I don't think it would please them. It would be similar to taking a person who has been using Apple computers for the last few years and then just throwing them into a Windows 7 machine. We all know Windows 7 is an awesome operating system, but it sure doesn't mean the former Apple user will like it.
On the same token though, people like me who have been using some other type of smart phone like a Windows Mobile, Blackberry or Nokia product have a much easier time making the jump over to Android. We are immediately immersed in Android's capabilities and instantly fall in love with it.
So when it comes to asking the question: Is a Galaxy S phone better then an iPhone? The answer really all depends on the individual. Yes high end Android devices are awesome, and yes they do make a fantastic choice when compared to the iPhone, but they are not an iPhone killer, they are not better overall, and the iPhone is not better then the Galaxy S line overall. It all really comes down to what the individual user wants and expects from a modern smart phone. One thing is for sure though, no matter which type of phone you choose, you will not be disappointed.
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There is a lot to be said for the things that Apple has done to simplify home technology, and Microsoft being who they are have also made great strides in this area. Not long ago I noticed that my home was really moving more and more towards Microsoft's direction. We have multiple Windows Media Center computers, Zunes, an XBox 360, and also a Windows Home Server.
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So for the last two nights I have been working on a customers computer with a pretty serious email issue. She received a new computer and we loaded Microsoft Office 2003 on it along with her email accounts and all of her old email, contacts, and calendar. Only days after she was all set up she began calling me, saying that Outlook was downloading multiple copies of the same emails and that it was filling her inbox. The problem continued to get worse before I could take a look at it, and then all of a sudden it just stopped. Her inbox was fine, she was only getting one copy of each email and all seemed well. I though maybe she had gotten an update that corrected the problem, but I was wrong. Just when I was thinking everything was ok, the problem started again, this time it was downloading as many as 30 copies of each email. So I finally made the trip up to her office and began to diagnose the problem. A few Google searches later gave me a little insight into what the problem might be and I began to go about fixing it. I tried everything the web had to offer in the way of solutions, but nothing seemed to work. I unchecked the advanced setting box for leaving messages on the server, I ran the imap fix program found buried deep in the System32 folder, i deleted her accounts and set them up again, i deleted all of her rules, you name it I tried it. I even went so far as to remove Office altogether and then start it all over from scratch. None of that worked.
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Well for those of you who haven't heard yet, Operation Chokehold is set to go into motion this Friday at 12 noon PST and 3pm EST. Operation Chokehold is a 3g internet protest against AT&T to put a temporary hold on AT&T's 3g network by having as many iPhone and Smartphone users as possible start using AT&T's 3g network for large data transmissions for one hour. The hope is that so many people will do it that it will crash AT&T's 3g network for the entire hour.
This is a social and online protest over some news that AT&T plans on fining some of it's iPhone users for using to much data in their unlimited data packages. It seems that instead of AT&T updating and fixing their worthless 3g network, they are going to instead charge their customers for something that their customers are already paying for per their contract.
For more information on Operation Chokehold, check out the link - http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/12/operation-chokehold.html#disqus_thread
**UPDATE** 12-20-2009
Well the day of defeat came and went without any of the major tech sites reporting on it from what I have seen. Did it work? I guess it really depends on where you live and who you ask. I couldn't really tell you about anywhere else as like I just said, I haven't seen any reporting on it. But I can tell you, I was able to get on AT&T's 3g network just fine on Friday at the proposed time and start streaming audio from one of my favorite online radio stations. I tried it from Kansas City MO, so I can say with good confidence that Kansas City MO didn't impact the 3g network here at all.
What about you? Did you access AT&T's 3g network at all on Friday during the proposed attack and were you able to get on, was your network slower then usual, was it all just fine? Tell us here in the comments section as I am very curious as to how it went in other parts of the country.
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When it comes to anti virus protection, many programs claim to be the best. You have free options and pay options, good options and bad ones. The biggest problem with anti virus protection is that even if you get the best rated protection in the world, it is only as good as it's latest virus definition file. In other words, when a new virus makes it's way out into the wild, it has to be discovered by the programs creators first before they can write a definition for it. So some poor end user has to be the guinea pig.
Regardless of what program you use to protect yourself, chances are, at some point you are going to get infected as there is no such thing as the perfect anti virus solution. So when that rouge program finally hits your registry and your computer is lighting up brighter then the Vegas Strip on a Saturday night and you just don't know what to do, then maybe this post will help you a bit.
Since the majority of my business is cleaning infected systems, I thought I could share with you all some of my secrets that I use, and believe me when I tell you, it's really not very hard.
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Now I am not exactly known as an Apple lover, but even I will admit when Apple is onto something. Snow Leopard is a fantastic OS, and for the most part, Mac's run really well. Being a PC guy, saying that is rather hard, but I'll live.
But just the other day I noticed something about Mac's that really bothered me. I was walking around Logan Int Airport in Boston, using the free Wi-Fi provided by Google (thanks Google) and I was looking at all the laptops people were using around me. Out of all the laptops I saw being used, most of them were Mac's. I could easily tell from their signature glowing Apple and mostly white shells, or sometimes with a silver shell for the Pro users. Looking at the sea of Mac's it hit me, they all look the same. Once considered to be the best looking laptop on the market has turned into a bunch of sheep. They all look the same, and gone are the days of style, change and pizazz we have all come to know.
Seeing all those Mac's, I started to get bored with them. When I looked at the PC's I saw many different colors, mostly black and silver, but also some reds, greens, blues etc.... They were different sizes, with different keyboards, different shells. They were tiny (the netbooks) and huge (the big 17 inchers), some of them had style and looked fun to the naked eye, while others were rather dull and stale and looked like they would be more at place in an IRS agent convention.
The PC's had variety. The Mac's did not. I'm sorry to say it, but while Mac's may have a nice OS and awesome hardware under the hood, they are not much to look at anymore. They are all boring and stale.
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Well it's getting to be that time of the year again. The smart people have been anticipating what their friends and loved ones want for Christmas and have most of the shopping already finished, while most of the rest of us have waited to do our shopping, and still more will continue to wait till that last week or even that last day right before the big day.
If you are reading this blog then most likely you are a tech geek like me. When it's time for me to do some Christmas shopping I tend to get my friends and loved ones items that I seem to like more then they do. For instance, last year I purchased a Zune for my wife. She didn't really take to it all that well until she went on her first run with it. Then even later when she discovered she could plug it into her Ford Fusion and sync it from the driveway via the wi-fi connection she was in love. I seem to have this ability in my tech filled world to look at all the gadgets around me, and notice what would fit best in the hands of the people I know. Often times when I hand somebody a new tech gadget for Christmas they often give me that puzzled look and wonder why I gave it to them. Then days, sometimes weeks and in some cases months later they call me up and say "hey you know that present you gave me, it's really cool, thanks."
So this year, i thought maybe I should write a blog post about these things. I put it in the back of my mind, and now, after a trip down to my local electronics dealer I thought it would be a good time to write a piece.
This first piece is a tech gift thats good for anybody with a home entertainment system but it is especially good for older parents and grandparents. I was first introduced to it back in 2005 after I spent a little time working as a home theater installer for a company called Ultimate Electronics in Kansas City. I only worked for them for a short time because Ultimate Electronics filed for bankruptcy and closed all three of it's stores in KC. Working as a home theater installer meant that i did much more work installing then I did with sales. Since we earned a commission on our sales, i was always looking to sell something extra in a customers home when I was installing something. One item I could almost always count on making a sale with was the Logitech Harmony Remote.
The Logitech Harmony Remote is an affordable advanced universal remote control for home theater and entertainment systems that is very easy to use and very easy to set up. When i would set up a new home theater for a customer, I would almost always have to spend an hour showing them how to use the 4 or 5 different remote controls that came with their new home theater package. It was always the same story, one remote control that came with the TV would control the DVD player, VCR and maybe the satellite or cable box, but leave out the surround sound receiver. The surround sound receiver remote would control all of the above, but might not have functions for a DVR. So more often then not a customer would almost always have to resort to using at least two or three of the many remotes to use their new system properly. This is where the Harmony steps in. The Logitech Harmony Advanced Remote Control can control just about anything you throw at it. I purchased my first Harmony remote (the 688 model) in 2005 after i saw how cool they really are.
Harmony's are extremely easy to set up. You don't have to worry about finding the right code from a manual, the Harmony does all that for you. Honestly the worst thing about setting up Harmony's are the actual model numbers of your equipment. If your home theater is already all set up and your TV is on the wall and you don't know exactly where you put all those user manuals then getting those model numbers can be a real pain. But they are extremly important and I will explain why here in a second.
So when you get the new Harmony remote, the first thing you should know is that you program it all through your PC or Mac. The Harmony plugs into your computer via the included mini USB cable. Before you plug in the remote I first suggest installing the software that the remote comes with (if you loose the software installation CD you can always download it again from the Logitech Website. Once the software is installed you will need to create a Logitech Harmony account. Use an email address that is familiar to you and one that you expect to keep for a few years. This account will allow you to log in and make changes to your equipment, activities and even the remote its self. After installing the software and setting up your account its time to start adding devices like your TV, DVR etc... This is where those model numbers come in. When adding devices to your remote, you need to have the exact model number from the Manufacturers tag that is usually printed on the back of the device. If you have a flat panel TV that is already hung on the wall, or an AV receiver with a lot of short cables plugged into it, then pulling these devices out or off the wall can be somewhat of a pain, but believe me when I tell you, it's worth it as that is the worst part of setting up your Harmony remote.
The software you use to set up your Harmony remote is very simple to understand. You add the devices that you have in your home theater/entertainment area, and once that is done you create activities. The activities section is the area where the Harmony remote really shines. A good example, the "Watch TV" activity is the activity that my family uses the most. When you set up this activity, the Harmony software ask you a bunch of questions as to how you go about watching your TV. In my home when I press the "Watch TV" activity the Harmony turns on my TV, satellite DVR box, and surround sound receiver. It sets my TV to the correct input, and also sets the surround sound receiver to the correct input. All DVR functions work properly and I have full control of the entertainment devices.
Now at this point some of you are asking, "why is this good for older parents and grandparents?" and the answer is simple. My mother-in-law is the most non tech savvy person I know. For years when she came to visit (and she comes often) she couldn't figure out how to turn on the TV to watch her favorite channel. Now since she has the same television service that we do, she knows most of the general commands to get things done on her home TV. But her home TV is just that, a TV. It doesn't have a DVR player, or a surround sound receiver. Just the TV and the non DVR satellite receiver box. So while she knows what channel she wants to watch on our system, she at one point how to get there. The Harmony changed all that. Now when she comes to visit, if she wants to watch her favorite TV show, she just picks up the Harmony and presses the "Watch TV" button and thats all thats needed. Everything turns on and she just goes to the channel she wants to watch and there are no more issues. This is what makes the Harmony the perfect gift for your elder family members, with big easy to understand buttons right on the remote, your older family members will be able to control their home systems with ease. Now you might need to set it up for them, but once it's done everybody will be less stressed and much more happy.
The Harmony also works great for other odd devices. For my system we don't use a standard DVD player, instead we use our XBox 360. The Harmony controls the XBox with no issues. Now I wouldn't use it to play games, but for getting on XBox Live and watching movies it does a great job. And we also have an older VCR for that rare occasion when we need it, and it has no issues with that either. One time however I had a specialized TV that the Harmony didn't know. In those cases, as long as you have the original remote control it is all ok. I just put the Harmony in learning mode, put the two remote controls together head to head and the Harmony learned everything it needed to control the device properly.
Now let's talk about durability. Often times when people are making the decision to purchase a new tech gadget, they want to know if it will last. Well the Harmony will last and then some. My first Harmony the 688 model was only in our home for a few months when we decided to get a new puppy. Well once the puppy found the Harmony it was game on. The dog tore into it, ripping off a big piece of plastic from the top and leaving several bite and scratch marks on the device. When it first happened I feared that it would never work again, but despite the abuse the Harmony kept right on going. Fast forward to today and you find me after having just set up my second Harmony remote. And if your asking why I had to do that again, all I can say is that while a Harmony may stand up to an attack from one new puppy, two is a bit much for them. I just picked up the Harmony 610. It looks and works pretty similar to my older 688 except the buttons are slightly bigger and easier to find. Setting it up didn't take very long as all I had to do was download the updated software and log in. Logitech saved all of my data from my last set up and all I had to do was change what remote control I was using and I was good to go once all the data was downloaded into the controller.
The Harmony comes in several different models as you can see from the selection on Newegg. They start around $60 and can be found for even cheaper if you catch them on sale. Some of the more expensive models with full touch screen can get much higher in price then that. Regardless of which one you choose, with proper programming I'm sure you or your loved ones will be very happy with it.
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Well here we are, just a couple days away from the big Windows 7 launch. Critics are abuzz, people are applauding, and it appears as though, even in these very early stages, that Microsoft has the first hit on their hands since the release of XP back in 2001. But is it really all it's made out to be? I think not.
Now I don't want to start this off on the wrong foot. First let me say that I love Windows 7. I have been using it already for the better part of a year. First as a beta, then an RC and last week I got my hands on the final product as so far so good. Well that is except for one small thing.
One of 7's biggest claims to fame is it's ability to run on system hardware that may not be all that current. And for the most part this is true, but their are complications. The other day I installed Windows 7 on my wifes aging laptop. It's a Gateway MX6424 that she purchased as a refurbished machine back in 2006. The manufacturer date on the laptop goes back to 2005. By computer standards, thats old. It has a 1.2 ghz AMD Turion single core CPU, 1gb of DDR RAM, 80gb HDD, and an ATI Chipset.
After installing Windows 7, the laptop worked great. It booted faster, got online right away with no need to download any hardware drivers, all in all it was smooth. Except for one thing. The sound driver didn't work. It uses a Conexant HD Audio sound device that for some reason a driver for Vista or 7 was never created. I have spent hours looking online for a suitable driver that should work, but nothing I have found has done the trick.
After having spent hours looking for and trying several different drivers and coming up with nothing, and not wanting to switch the laptop back to XP, I instead recently purchased this item http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829128004 While i'm sure it's not the best solution, it should work just fine.
In the end, I can see many problems coming from people who wish to make the upgrade to Windows 7, only to find out that not everything will work correctly once they do. I really don't think that should stop people from making the switch though. Out of the 10 different computers I have installed 7 on, that has been my only real problem. Well I also had some issues with 7 Ultimate seeing a Windows 2003 server properly, but that was all resolved pretty easily by just recreating the shared drives. While not a big issue on a small network consisting only 10 PC's, that could be a headache for those installing 7 on a larger network with more then 10 computers. But i'm sure it won't present much of a problem when put into the capable hands of network engineers and proper server administrators.
**UPDATE** 11/25/09
Well I don't know if the folks over at Gateway read this blog entry or if it was somebody at Microsoft, or who the heck knows, but just a few days ago the missing drivers for my old Gateway laptops onboard audio were downloaded and installed via Windows Update. Thus eliminating the need to use the external USB sound card and mini iPod speakers. It all just works now.
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Why do people purchase Apples? Really, I'm seriously asking?
A good customer of mine just today told me he was looking for a new laptop. He told me he wanted an excellent performer with decent battery life. It also had to have a 17" screen and 1tb of hard drive space. I raised my eyebrows, not being very sure I could fill his request and told him I would try.
Not long after he told me he was considering a Mac. If I am not mistaken I think he even called me right before he walked into the Apple store. Not wanting to loose a customer to Apple I started configuring his new performance laptop.
Apple offered him a pretty decent machine. I'm not going to lie, Apple does build some pretty good computers and OS X is a pretty slick operating system. My only real problem with Apple in the last few years has been their price points. Why pay that much when you can get better hardware for cheaper?
I designed for him an excellent laptop that in most regards is better then the MacBook Pro he was considering. Let's compare the spec's and prices shall we?
First let's start with the Mac. I am using the Apple website to configure this Mac, and I am going to use the best possible parts that come closest to the custom laptop I designed for him.
Mac Spec's:
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06ghz CPU
Hard Drive - 500gb 7200rpm
Memory - 4gb DDR3 1066
Display - 17" HD Display 1920x1200
Keyboard - Backlit (Apple white)
Graphics - NVidia GeForce 9600m w/512mb memory
8 hour battery life
Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adaptor ($99 extra)
Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adaptor ($29 extra)
Integrated 2.0mp web cam
OS X Leopard
One thing people always talk about with Mac's is the software that comes standard with them. However, when configuring the Mac, I noticed that most of the good software isn't free, but actually cost money, a lot of money. Knowing what I pre install for my customers on the systems I sell, I had to include a couple of the programs to ensure that both machines where matched up as much as possible. Now, if I am mistaken and you can get some decent programs like these that are free, then let me know so I can correct this post. Anyways, here they are.
iWork 09 Office productivity software - $49
Aperture 2 photo editing software - $199
Final Cut 4 video editing software - $199
Total cost of the Mac before taxes and shipping (or just taxes if I go to the store to pick it up) - $3445
Now let's look at the system I configured for the customer. This is a custom performance laptop from my company, Rj Systems LLC.
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad 2.0 ghz
Hard Drive - 2 x 500gb 7200rpm
Memory - 4gb DDR3 1066
Display - 17" HD display 1920x1200
Keyboard - backlit (blue)
Graphics - ATi Mobility Radeon 3870 w/512mb memory
6 hour battery life
Integrated DVI port
Integrated VGA port
Integrated 2.0mp web cam
Thumb print reader
7 in 1 memory card reader
ESata port
Blue Tooth
Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit with a free upgrade to Windows 7 in October
And for the software, I think by now we all know about OpenOffice.org office productivity software, The Gimp photo editing software and Windows Movie Maker video editing software which are all free. I also install Avast Anti Virus (free for a PC), Adobe Reader, Malware Bytes, Java and other important software so my machine is ready to hit the web right out of the box.
Total cost of my computer - $2120.
Thats a big difference when you don't get as good of a cpu, not as much hard drive space, and a slew of other little things that should make my system cost more.
However, let just say for the sake of argument that the Mac comes with free comparable software to the PC, and let's say for some reason they throw in the video adaptors, the Mac is still $2849. Over $700 more expensive. Why?
I really want to know why. Just in case somebody mentions it, they both come with the same standard warranty, 1 year parts, 3 years labor. Errr well, actually the Mac only comes with a 1 year parts & labor before they start charging you more.
So give me some good reasons why the Mac is a better purchase. Don't worry, my customer doesn't read my blog and I really do want to know.
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AT&T and Port 25, no mail for you and you and you!!!!!
So only my 2nd blog post this year and it's my second blog post aboutAT&T. Don't get me wrong. I like AT&T, I have almost all of my services through AT&T, home phone, DSL,Satellite TV, Cell Phones and the list goes on. I have so many AT&T cell phones, and so many different entertainment packages from AT&T that it's normal for my bill to exceed $500 on an average month.
As much as I like AT&T, no company is perfect, in fact most ISP's and phone company's are far from perfect. Being in the business that I am in, I have a tendency to see where these company's fail on almost a daily basis. Recently I was at a customers house trying to set up his Outlook with his business email. No matter what I tried I couldn't get his SMTP servers to verify and send email. Thinking something might be wrong with his computer I began running the usual gambit of anti virus programs, anti spyware etc... While all that was running I pulled out my trusty Rj SystemsLLC laptop and booted it up. I wanted to check to see if my own Outlook account could send email from his home, and since I had just used it to send an important document from a McDonald's only an hour earlier I knew it was working just fine.
When I attempted to send the email I to ran into the same SMTP error. At this point I knew it wasn't his computer. That only thing I could think of was that there was some kind of filter in place on his AT&T DSL line that prevented him from using port 25 as his SMTP port. So I began the long and usually horrible process of contacting AT&T DSL customer support. Keep in mind that I do this on a regular basis. I have become so accustomed to hearing people speak with an Indian accent that it almost sounds weird to me when I hear normal English.
When the AT&T 1st Tier DSL tech came on the phone, I explained to him who I was, my knowledge level of the problem and the conclusion I had come to. Did that matter? Hell no, I still had to jump through all the hoops to get to the point where he would even talk to me about the problem. And 30 minutes later when the hoops had ended we got down to business. I preceded to tell him about my problem again, and then this time he tells me that under no circumstances does AT&T put any filters or blocks on their lines that would prevent the customer from sending email. This lead to a bunch more hoops and and after another 45 minutes of me arguing on the phone with a tech who obviously didn't know what was really going on, I was elevated to 2nd tier support.
When 2nd tier DSL support got on the line I spent a whole 5 minutes again explaining the problem, who I was, my knowledge level of the problem etc... only to have the 2nd tier DSL tech come back and tell me that AT&T DOES PUT A BLOCK ON PORT 25 TO HELP CURB SPAM.
What?!?!?!?!?!
“But wait, the other guy said.....that.....but............”
What?!?!?!?!?!
"Yes sir, AT&T block's port 25 to help prevent spam, but I can lift it for you at your request. Shall I do that now?"
errrrrrrrrrrr "Hell Yes" I said. And then problem solved.
Every time I call AT&T it's a whole new learning experience for me. This time I learned that 1st tier DSL support personal in India or Pakistan or wher ever they are don't really know what AT&T is doing behind the scenes here in the States. AT&T is all about communication but yet that can't communicate to their 1st tier support personal what is really going on. Ohhh and what's really funny here, when I was at McDonald's before, their WI-FI was provided by AT&T.....hmmmmmmmm.
So if in the future if your trying to set up a POP type email account on the AT&T network, be sure to either work your way through getting port 25 lifted, or see if you can use a different port. Otherwise it isn't going to happen.
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Ok kids, so it's been a long minute since my last blog post, but those of you who have looked at my blog in the past know I only post when I find something truly compelling to post about. Well here and now I have found one of those truly compelling things to write about and I have been waiting to do so for a couple weeks now.
3g networks, they can really suck sometimes.
Yup, I said it, and I will do it again, 3g networks can really suck some times.
Now some of you are reading this and thinking "what the hell is he talking about, 3g is awesome". Well it is, if you live in a area that has real 3g, or more towers to serve it. Actually I don't know how 3g technology works, it's one of those geeky tech fields I haven't looked into to much, but one that I use just about every day of the week.
About two years ago I purchased my first 3g cell phone from AT&T. It was the Samsung Sync and it was a cool little phone. It had streaming video, email, a camera, and of course AT&T's 3g speeds. Now being in Kansas City, we will take anything they throw at us and say is faster then what we had before. So when I started downloading videos and attachments with my email much faster then I had previously, I was pretty happy.
So there I was in my own little happy 3g world. A year later I purchased a Samsung Blackjack II and my 3g experience was even more enhanced with Windows Mobile, IE mobile and all the other little perks that make PDA phones so much fun. However all that happiness came to a screeching halt about 3 weeks ago.
On December 15th I made a long overdue trip to South Florida to visit my family. Upon my arrival in West Palm Beach I started using my Blackjack and almost immediately I noticed that the internet speeds were much much faster. I could get video faster, large email attachments faster etc. etc.. I was still on the AT&T network, and as far as I knew it was the same 3g service, but again, it was so much faster then Kansas City. As I traveled up and down the south east coast of Florida from West Palm to Ft. Lauderdale and all the way down to Miami and everywhere I went, it was faster, faster, faster then any speed I had gotten in and around the Kansas City metro area. I thought to myself "it could be just a fluke" but I would soon prove myself wrong with that theory.
About 4 days after my arrival in West Palm I got on a plane in Miami and headed even further south and east to Recife Brazil to get married and meet the new inlaws. Before arriving I had been reading that Brazil (actually spelled Brasil, only Americans spell it with a Z) was projected to have one of the top 5 economy's in the world by 2012 and that it had invested billions into upgradeing it's infrastructure. Well when I landed and arrived at the newly built and very fancy Recife airport terminal I turned on my Blackjack with my new international rate plan and was shocked to see the 3g symbol appear. I was connected to the Claro network and after seeing the 3g symbol I tested it out. Web pages were loading about as fast as they did in Kansas City, and video's and email attachments seemed to download around the same as Kansas City as well. So I started thinking, maybe I should start doing some real world test's.
I used two different websites, one based in the USA and one based in Brasil to be the basic benchmarks. The first website is Syde-Sho.com, a website dedicated to general local Kansas City trash talking and poops and giggles from what's left of it's once flourishing Electronic Dance Music scene. The other website is Claro.com.br the home page for the network I was currently on. I figured that they would have a web page optimized to load fast on their own 3g network and would be a good test bed. My only concern about the Syde-Sho site was the fact that it's web servers were located in Chicago.
Using a simple stop watch initiated by my wife, we tested the speeds. Claro, fully loaded about 2 seconds faster then Syde-Sho. Considering that Claro.com.br is located in Brazil I figured that was pretty good. All the same I logged the exact times and two weeks later I was on the plane again heading to Miami.
After arriving in Miami and getting settled in on our 4 hor layover I pulled out the Blackjack again and once again loaded up Claro and Syde-Sho. Claro loaded about 4 seconds faster then it did when I was actually in Brazil, and Syde-Sho was fully loaded in just a couple seconds, totally killing its load time in Brazil.
Soon I was on the plane again, this time heading to St. Louis MO where we had an 11 hour layover. After landing and getting settled in our hotel room for the night I pulled out the Blackjack again and tried the same sites. Both Syde-Sho and Claro loaded within one second of their times in Brazil and obviously much slower then Miami. The next day we finally got on the plane and headed to Kansas City (minus one checked bag, those b******s :-( ) and after arriving and getting home and into a somewhat settled point I tried it again. The Kansas City load times for both Claro and Syde-Sho averaged out to be no less then 3 seconds slower then Brasil and sometimes up to a full minute slower.
It should be noted that each time, before testing began, I would restart my phone and wait a couple minutes to ensure it was fully booted. I didn't go to any other sites before or after, just booted, logged the time it took to fully load, shut it off and started again.
So after all that shutting down, pulling out the old Casio stop watch and talking my wife into another boreing round of 3g testing I learned that just because you live or work inside a 3g network, doesn't mean you are getting the exact same thing AT&T is advertiseing all over the nation.
I invite readers to do their own testing. If you live or work in an AT&T 3g network, load up Claro.com.br and Syde-Sho.com and let us know the load times. Please also note the city you tried it from, and what kind of phone you are using.
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Remember the good old days? Remember back in the early and mid 80's when big company's like IBM and Apple would stock schools with their computers to get their names out there and more known? Then remember how IBM turned it's back on education in the early 90's and soon schools were stocked with Dells, Gateways, and other brands? And then remember how IBM sold off it's entire consumer lineup of desktops and laptops to Lenovo only a few years ago?
You see that's what happens to the big names when they get greedy with the school systems and children's education. IBM stocked the schools of south Florida with IBM desktops in the early to mid 80's. They put in XT's, PC Jr's and all sorts of gear for next to nothing and they did it all for what they said was the betterment of the children's education. But then when the schools needed servicing and updates of all those computers it couldn't afford, IBM snubbed them. They charged them a gynormous price premium and made it nearly impossible for the schools to upgrade. The schools then turned around, gave IBM the finger and went to the lowest bidder. Kids, soon to be adults forgot all about IBM and stuck with their Dells and Gateways and HP's.
Well the same thing is happening in the OS market now. Not so long ago I was offered a part time teaching position at a local private school here in the Kansas City area teaching technology. I was really excited to take the job so that I could bring some modernization to the schools aging technology. We soon got to work building the school a bunch of new computers and wanting to keep it legal we contacted Microsoft to see about getting some software, mainly in the OS and Office departments. We though surely Microsoft would want to put up some software, because if the kids learn everything on Office and Windows based products, the chances of them migrating to Mac or Linux based products later on in life would be greatly decreased. But were we correct in our assumptions? Hell no. Microsoft it appears has no issues with the students of America learning how to use its products.
You see, our school is small. Not a lot of students, so not a big budget when it comes to technology. It is also not an expensive school either. While to parents do pay to send their children to this school, they don't pay a lot, so most of what they do pay just goes to cover the normal expenses. However what they do pay is enough to provide the children that go to the school a much better education then they would otherwise get in the Kansas City public school system.
So I basically have became the main IT Admin and IT Teacher for a small, poor private school with almost no technology budget and I am trying like hell to get some software from Microsoft to run these computers. I'm not looking for anything fancy. I don't need Vista. XP Home would do just fine for our needs. That and the student teacher version of Office 2003 would be fantastic. But unless we are willing to pay out the wazoo for these products, Microsoft doesn't want anything to do with us.
Now don't get me wrong, I am more then willing to pay for Microsoft products when I need to. I have eight computers that make up my home network and home office, and all of them are running various purchased & legal versions of Windows from XP Home all the way up to Vista Ultimate 64bit. But schools, especially inner city schools being private or public often don't have the budgets needed to give their students the tools they need for a proper education when it comes to technology.
I read somewhere recently that Microsoft was crying because they say that there are not enough highly educated Americans to fill the jobs it needs filled in the Microsoft offices. Well duh. Microsoft is the biggest software company in the world. It is based right here in the U.S. But yet it won't offer it's products to the education system to begin that early training for it's future work force.
It would seem to me that if Microsoft made a concerted effort to put its OS's and office products in the schools then it would not only find more people willing and educated enough to fill up its workforce but it would also secure it's future customers. It just makes sense.
But as much as I have tried, the best Microsoft will do is Windows 2000, and even that is in very limited quantities.
I went to my boss, the principal, and even to the school board, giving them the news, and I got exactly what I expected I would. "We don't have the money, make due with what you have now". Well the problem is that with the 10 new computers we built, we don't have any options as we don't have any operating systems to put in them. Well, I should say, we didn't. Yesterday the tech club kids and I began the install process of Linux Edubuntu, the education version of Ubuntu. With that also comes Firefox, OpenOffice and all the other necessities needed for the modern online world.
We now have operating systems, office productivity software and a slew of other products and it was all free. It seems the Open Source community has a very keen interest in the education of our youth and I don't blame them. So now, just like the school systems did with IBM back in the late 80's and early 90's, I am now doing with Microsoft. I am giving them the finger, and loving it.
BTW I teach technology to almost 200 students from Kindergarten to 8th grade. That's nearly 200 students that will now be learning on Linux machines, and they are not the only ones. It seems that several of the schools in our area are doing the same thing.
Let the Linux revolution continue.